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Virgin Australia is expected to report improved earnings and average fares per passenger as it benefits from the grounding of rivals Tiger and Qantas last year.

The nation's number two carrier is due to release its half year results to December 31 on Thursday.

Market consensus is for an underlying profit before tax (PBT) of $79.7 million, according to a median of four analysts' forecasts gathered by AAP.

It would represent an 11 per cent rise from underlying PBT of $72 million in the prior corresponding period, if the result prints in line with expectations.

Virgin chief executive John Borghetti told shareholders at the company's annual general meeting in November that underlying profit before tax for the first three months of 2011/12 had been higher than the prior corresponding period.

While stopping short of providing specific earnings guidance due to the uncertain economic environment, Mr Borghetti at the time said the airline group was expecting an improvement in underlying performance this financial year.

Deutsche Bank analysts Cameron McDonald and Entcho Raykovski said the grounding of Tiger Airways in July last year resulted in higher yields at the leisure end of the market.

"And Virgin Australia has likely benefited from the issues at Qantas during the strikes and subsequent grounding," the pair wrote in a research note dated February 9.

The market is hoping for an update on Thursday on Virgin's quest to secure a larger slice of the corporate travel market, as well as details on fleet and capacity changes for the second half of 2011/12.

Mr Borghetti said in November that Virgin was due to receive one Boeing 737 a month throughout calendar 2012, which gave the airline flexibility to add capacity or replace older aircraft.

Virgin is also scheduled to receive two factory fresh Airbus A330s later this year.

Virgin reported a first half net profit of $23.8 million for 2010/11 but a difficult second half resulted in a full year loss of $67.8 million.